New cancer research centre launched in Leeds

A new cancer centre has been established in Leeds to conduct world-leading research into the causes and treatment of the disease.

The Leeds Cancer Research UK Centre will bring together experts from the University of Leeds and Leeds NHS Teaching Hospitals Trust with the aim of developing new targeted therapies.

Research at the facility will concentrate on identifying new biomarkers to increase understanding of the effects drugs have on cancer patients and will strive to take treatments 'straight from the laboratory to the clinic'.

Professor Tim Bishop, head of genetic epidemiology at the University of Leeds and chair of the centre's governance board, said the developments should boost access to cutting-edge cancer treatments and improve care for patients across the globe.

'By building closer interdisciplinary links with scientists, doctors, chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers we want to increase the pace of research, leading to improved treatments for patients,' he commented.

Cancer Research UK-funded projects in Leeds will concentrate on bowel, bladder, skin and kidney cancers, while paediatric tumours, leukaemia and lymphoma are other areas of interest.

Last month, an Imperial College London study published in the Lancet journal suggested the risk of developing bowel cancer could be cut by a third, thanks to a one-off screening test, which takes just five minutes to perform.